


Aftermath

by Endie



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23701054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endie/pseuds/Endie
Summary: Crossposted from my Wattpad at EndieStoriesSet in an alternate timeline of the SU movie.Steven Universe has not been the same since Spinel came. He's not been the same since she shattered them right in front of him. The way his heart dropped as he saw the shards of Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst hit the ground as Spinel laughed evilly as she held onto the Crystal Gems as she shattered them.Now, a year later after what had occurred here in Beach City, Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot now defend the Earth after the loss of the original Crystal Gems. They also now take full care of Steven after a request by Garnet after she told them before any of what had occurred happened that should anything happen to them, they should take care of him. But not only is Steven suffering from depression of his gem family's death, but also PTSD of shattering Spinel, something Steven Universe would not have done.With the challenges of what Steven is going through, Bismuth, Lapis, Peridot and even the Diamonds now have to love, protect and care for the boy and try to get him back to the boy who loved to smile and was always optimistic.But can they?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	1. It Happened Too Fast

It happened all too fast. It just came out of nowhere and out of the blue. First, he was spending some time with his family, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, singing a little tune with them, visiting Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot at the still under construction town of Little Homeworld, a place where the gems who decided to stay on Earth were going to live, and then heading to the little hill they usually went to for some R&R.

All Steven Universe wanted was for everything to stay as it was and never change. He'd finally gotten his happily ever after. After all the things he had gone through to get to this point in time. Finding out his mother was really Pink Diamond, getting Yellow and Blue Diamond to listen to him, going to Homeworld to convince White Diamond to heal the corrupted gems on Earth, getting his gem removed by her and eventually rejoining with his gem half, and finally getting her redeemed. Allowing for all four of them to heal the corrupted gems that had been collected over the years. The gems were so happy to see their long-lost friends now cured of corruption. A happy ending finally gotten to after so many years.

Now, two years later after everything, life was now much more different. Humans and gems in Beach City were living in peace together, Homeworld had changed for the best as the gems were now free to do what they couldn't do previously, the Diamonds had become more loving towards Steven and see him for who he actually is. Everything was perfect. And Steven thought that nothing could change that.

Until she arrived.

Steven had just asked Garnet if she foresaw that everything was going to stay the same as it was currently, only for her to respond with a worried look on her face and looking up in the sky, which became darker as a certain familiar structure floated downward towards the ground. The structure was an injector, which instantly extended out its legs and the injector tip, and then aiming downward towards the Earth.

Eventually, someone on top of the injector filled with whatever stuff it was inside, well rather the silhouette of them, stood forward and asked the people below them if one of them was Steven Universe, to which he replied with a confused 'yes'. Only for her to chuckle as she formed a horn with her hand and blew into it before the injector pushed back a little bit in the air before flying downward into the Earth, causing the others to get out of the way of the injector tip drilling itself into the Earth and beginning to inject the biopoison inside it.

The figure then jumped down to a lower part of the injector, where it was revealed that this was no ordinary figure. This was a gem! This gem had pink hair with long pigtails on each side of her head, her eyes were pink and evil looking with black streaks that ran down her cheeks. Her arms and legs were quite thin looking, except for her body, which seemed to have an average build. And her gemstone was a pink heart gem, only that it was upside down.

The gem, known as Spinel, looked down upon the gems she was looking at with an evil tone in her voice. Garnet, Amethyst and Steven were completely confused about who this gem was and what they wanted while Pearl couldn't believe her eyes. Spinel then decided to let out a few insults towards the gems Steven was with before taking a good look at him before he interrupted her and told her that peace had been made. Only for her to not really care about that and speak about how Pink Diamond faked her death, hid on a 'nowhere planet' with a bunch of nobodies.

And then came her little song. To be honest, if she wasn't trying to kill you, it'd be very catchy to your ears but a great song nonetheless. The gems tried to attack Spinel, but she was simply too fast for them and managed to dodge their attacks easily with what seemed to be her extreme stretchiness. All while singing about what Pink did without her and how all this time, she'd never forget about her and what she did.

She ran circles around the gems. They were just too slow for the stretchy gem. Steven was still confused about who this gem was, only for Spinel to just keep on singing, sounding like she was surprised that Steven had no idea who she was. She then went on to say how she was the 'loser of the game' that the two were playing. And then she announced that it was time for a new game that SHE would win. Leading for her to reach into her gem and pull out an odd looking rod. And with a click of the button on it, the rod extended and out the ends came a glowing pink scythe as she evilly chuckled.

And so the song finished it's course as she sang her final lines and got the gems into position before she wrapped herself around the lighthouse and then finally released the tension she built from being wrapped around the lighthouse and launched herself towards the three, who tried to get away but were too late, as she sang her last line and her scythe went right through all three of them, literally splitting the three gems in half as they bared a look of shock before they were reduced to nothing but their gemstones as they fell to the ground.

This got Steven angry, leading for him to summon his shield and to declare that was enough. Spinel didn't even listen. Which leads us to now. To what happened. To what caused the beginning of our story.

"Aww, what's the matter?" Spinel teased, twirling her scythe around in her hands. "Miss your friends already? Well you shouldn't worry about that..."

"Because you're not far behind them!"

She swung her scythe towards Steven, only for him to throw his shield and somehow manage to smack the weapon out of her hands, surprising the stretchy gem as the weapon landed on the ground, the scythe still in operation. Thankfully, he managed to knock it out of her hands before it could land a hit on him so he was unaffected by whatever the weapon should have done.

The two looked at the weapon and back at each other. Steven then realised what must be going through her head and ran towards it so he could grab it, only for Spinel to punch him and try to reach after it before he could get it. Steven was quick though as he grabbed her legs and tripped her up before getting back up and running after the weapon.

Spinel wasn't slow to react again as she stretched out her arms and grabbed Steven by his jacket and pulling him towards her. Steven quickly took off his pink letterman jacket and continued going after the weapon. Spinel then threw the jacket aside and just eventually grabbed the scythe from the ground, tripping up Steven in the process. Spinel laughed evilly as she had her weapon back and spring leaned toward Steven as she swung her scythe downwards so she could land a hit on him.

Only for him to summon his shield at the last second before the blade could hit him, protecting him from the impact. But when he saw where the blade had hit, he noticed that the blade was very close to hitting him in his arm as the blade was poking out of the back of the shield. Spinel tried to pull out the blade, only to discover it was stuck in the shield.

As she tried to tug it out of his shield, Steven took this as an opportunity to form a bubble on his right fist and punch her directly in the face a few times. Causing her to fall back from the scythe and onto the ground. Steven pulled it out himself and held it within his hands, pointing it towards her.

"I said that's enough, whoever you are." Steven told the stretchy gem while he put back on his pink jacket as Spinel got off from the floor. "Now, who are you and why are you actually here?"

"I'm surprised a loser like you managed to fight me off for so long before you got your hands on my little weapon..." Spinel insulted the hybrid. "And now that I see that you have no idea who I am, I shall tell you."

"The names Spinel. And I was once your mommy's little playmate." Spinel spoke. "UNTIL THAT NO GOOD LIAR OF A 'FRIEND' LEFT ME ON THAT GARDEN FOR 6000 YEARS!! And now I'm here to blow off some steam from this by taking it out on you!"

Steven then understood what she had gone through. After two years, he has accepted that his mother wasn't a good person and hurt a lot of people. But he had no idea that all this time, there was a gem whom only wanted to be Pink's friend but was then abandoned for the rest of her life until she found out about Steven. Steven now wanted to help this gem, to help her forget the past and redeem her to be a good person. But he knew it'd be difficult with how she was acting right now.

"But you know what? I got a even better idea than what I was previously gonna do. Instead of just killing you and your planet, I'm just gonna make sure that WE'RE never separated again!" Spinel plotted. "And it'll just be you and me, Steven Universe! All until the end of time!"

"Spinel, I wanna help you but you have to stop this anger against me! You need to listen to me!" Steven yelled to her, still holding the scythe in his hands.

"Oh no, Steven. You're not gonna help me. I'm gonna help us!" Spinel chuckled, in a tone that Steven felt uneasy about. "But first, let me just get this injector out the way."

Spinel then formed a horn with her left hand and blew into it once more, causing the injector to suck up the small amount of biopoison it had seeped out during the fight back into the injector and then cause the injector to retract its legs and injector tip before floating upwards into the air and out into the atmosphere. Steven was quite surprised to see the gem do this, although what she was gonna do next was worse.

"Now that's been decommissioned and rid of, it's time for the second part of my new plan." Spinel said. "But first..."

Spinel then stretched her left arm out towards Steven, coiling it around his body and tightening it to make sure he couldn't move anything with his body. Steven looked extremely uncomfortable as her hold on him tightened as she walked over to where the gemstones of the main three Crystal Gems laid.

"That's just to make sure you don't stop me from doing what is necessary for the both of us." Spinel explained. Steven was now very much worried about what she was gonna do, especially to what she was gonna do to his friends' gemstones as she was near them and looking at them, as if she was looking at them to see which one she would pick up.

Eventually, with her right hand, she stretched it out and picked up Pearl's gem, her gem still having that smooth and egg-like shape to it as Spinel held it in front of her face and in view of Steven. "Ah, Pink Diamond's Pearl. I remember her very much. She came over to the garden a few times but not to play with me and Pink, only to just tell her that the other Diamonds needed her back on her world. And then when Pink left for this place, she chose her to come with her to Earth, instead of me. She could've bought both of us but no, she thought you were more important than I was..."

"Y-You know she'll reform!" Steven raspily responded to her, his voice being raspy due to how tightly she was holding onto him. "And when she does, you're really gonna have it!"

Spinel only responded to that comment with a very evil sounding laugh, which even caused Steven to be off edge with it. "Oh you naive little flesh sack, if she did reform, she wouldn't even know you! None of the others would either in fact. And besides..."

"Did I ever say anything about her ACTUALLY reforming?"

And with that, she clenched her hand with Pearl's gem in it into a fist. Causing Steven to gasp as he realised what she had just done. Not only was it confirmed with the sound of something being crushed, but when Spinel opened up her fist and revealed to him Pearl's shards. She was now officially gone.

And after seeing that, Steven's heart immediately broke. Pearl, the one he had gotten a bit closer to over the years and had a mother-son bond with her, was shattered. Gone. Never to come back. Which then lead to him knowing what she was gonna do to the others.

"N-No! Pearl!" Steven cried out, trying to struggle out of Spinel's hold. He felt tears begin to form in his eyes, only for Spinel to cover his mouth with her arm coils in order to silence him.

"Shush, Steven!" Spinel snapped at him. "I've only just started."

She then went on to grab Amethyst's gem. Steven's other best friend and to him, a sister. Even if they weren't brother and sister in blood, he surely felt like their bond was definitely sibling like based on how they act with each other. He could never see her get shattered, so he shut his eyes so he wouldn't have to see it.

Spinel noticed this however and stretched her left hand over to hold his eyes open so he wouldn't be able to close them as she did what she was going to do. "Nuh, uh, uh! You're not gonna miss a single bit, Steven! I'm doing this so we can be together forever! And enough of the tears, you should be happy! You're gonna have your new and only best friend Spinel with you! Not this overcooked faker of a 'sister'!"

And with that line, she dropped Amethyst's gemstone and stomped on it, shattering it instantly. Steven wanted to scream, he really did, but couldn't as his mouth was still being covered. Being forced to watch it happen made it worse as the tears kept on coming, now streaming down his cheeks as he knew who was next. And he did not want her to die as well.

Lastly, was Garnet. Or rather the gemstones of her components: Ruby and Sapphire. Sure Pearl was also seen as a mother figure and Amethyst was more of a sister figure, Garnet was someone Steven had seen as a mother for the longest time. He was so close with the fusion, especially after the wedding he threw for Ruby and Sapphire to reunite the two back into Garnet after Rose's identity was unveiled. He felt really close with her when Garnet came to hug him during the reception and thank him, when they fused together into Sunstone for the first time, and during the two years since bringing peace to Earth and Homeworld. Garnet would still be his Fusion Mom to him.

But now she was going to die, at the hands of Spinel and with him having to watch them die. "And here we have the married couple. The war machine fusion. A fusion made of supposed 'love'. I was surprised that for a fusion like her, even she wasn't able to beat me!"

Spinel then picked up Sapphire's gem while placing her left foot on Ruby's gemstone. "Kinda wish I could've asked for a rematch, but oh well. Not like she'd fair better in it anyway! Goodbye Hothead!"

She stomped on Ruby's gemstone, shattering it into pieces like how Amethyst did. Steven was shaking in her hold and pleaded, although muffled, for Spinel to not hurt her as tears kept on falling from his eyes as she was about to shatter the last part of his Crystal Gem family.

"And the oracle. The supposed 'cool headed' one. Couldn't even play a tune to save her life." Spinel smugly said as she finished off the job and crushed Sapphire's gemstone in her hands, dropping the shards on the ground once more.

"There! All done!" Spinel declared as she let her hold of Steven go, causing him to fall to the ground, the scythe retracted but still in his hands. Right now, he was silent. He looked upon the shards that laid on the ground, the shards of his family. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, all now gone. Dead. Shattered. Never to come back again.

"G-Guys...." Steven sobbed, his tears now freely streaming down his face and his expression full of horror at the sight of what he saw.

"Oh quit it you!" Spinel irritatedly yelled at him. "I said quit your crying! They were just fake friends anyway! But now you've got the only friend you'll need for the rest of your life: me!"

Steven was silent. His eyes were still leaking tears, but now, not only was he feeling incredibly sad, but a new emotion was bubbling within him. This was an emotion that he didn't usually have normally, an emotion that only came up to someone he really hated or something he really wasn't happy about.

"Those Crystal Idiots would've just got in the way of us. And lemme say this; this is way better than what I had originally planned! Instead of just killing you and your planet, I'm just gonna keep you as my new best friend! But with more intensively physical games than the usual games I used to play with her! All to get back at your mother for leaving me on that stupid Garden!"

Steven then realised what he was now feeling. It was anger. Anger at someone he barely knew killing those he loved so dearly. Anger at Spinel. Anger at how she didn't feel a thing when she shattered them but only cared about her crazy plan to keep him and then hurt him for the rest of his life just to get back at his mom. He felt it boil within his blood, he felt his fists clench, the dirt scraping underneath his hands as he tightly clenched his fists together as tears of anger now began to stream down his face.

"It's the perfect revenge! And nobody will ever know! It's foolproof! It's perfect! It's absolutely delightful! And if anyone tried to stop me, then they'd suffer the same fate as these Crystal Gems!"

He felt his face heat up in anger, he then began to see his gem glow a bright pink along with his skin beginning to glow a bright pink as he took hold of the scythe in his hands and extended it out, along with summoning his shield. Now only feeling nothing but anger and an urge. An urge to kill HER. Steven was now quietly growling, his eyes only dead set on Spinel and seeing nothing else but her face. And Spinel didn't even notice what Steven looked like or what he was holding or feeling as she was too caught up in her little monologue about what she'd do once she's away from Beach City with Steven in tow.

"Hey Steven! Let's begin our new life-"

And before she could even finish her sentence, Steven let out a feral growl of anger and zoomed towards her without any warning and without any time for Spinel to react. He then took the scythe and slashed it at her arms, then to her legs, then her torso and at her face. Spinel was screaming the whole time as he did this. He then threw it to one side and took his shield and rammed it down on her upside down heart-shaped gem.

Each slam created a crack on her gem and caused her to scream in pain as her gem was cracked each time he hit her with the shield. Steven didn't see a now scared Spinel being stricken with the weapon she once held, but the face of someone who killed his family. He rammed the shield a few more times down on her gemstone before taking one last look at her, her form now having her arms and legs separated from the rejuvenator and parts of her face missing with pink glowing scars. Her form was also a mess too, as she was spazzing out due to how badly cracked her gem was. Steven still had his very angry expression on his face and took one last look at Spinel before raising his shield up once more for the final blow.

"W-Wait! Steven! Sto-"

But Spinel couldn't finish off what she was going to say. Because Steven finally rammed his shield right through her gem and split it in half, causing her form to finally poof and her now shattered gem to fall to the ground as the cloud of smoke blew away, revealing the broken gemstone to Steven.

Steven let out some short breaths of anger as he looked at the split gemstone. Each breath calming him down of his Diamond Anger state. His skin returned to its natural pigment in about a minute of him taking in breaths after his angered state was satisfied of what he had done. His shield had fizzed away too as Steven continued to look at the gem in a still angry mood.

Eventually, he finally calmed down and his mood returned to normal. That is, until he saw what he had just done. He gasped in absolute horror as he saw Spinel's split in half gemstone. He knew it was him that did it since he remembered how it ended up coming to this. He remembered the blind rage he went into as he attacked Spinel violently and did the final blow with his shield. He also remembered the last words Spinel tried to get out before her death, only to be cut off as she was finally fully shattered. He wanted to help the gem at first, but after seeing his family die in front of him, his anger got the better of him and made him do something he'd never do as a Crystal Gem: shatter a gem.

But his emotions changed very quickly as he remembered what has also happened. Remembering the fact that his family is now no longer here and is forever dead caused him to break down in tears. Not only because he shattered a gem, but because they were all now dead. He broke down to the ground crying, not caring if anyone saw him doing so. The tears and the sobbing wouldn't stop coming, as he crawled into a ball and cried into his jacket in front of his family's shards.

He had been like that for a long while, unaware of how long he'd been on that hill crying about his now dead family and that he had shattered a gem. It had been about 30 minutes until his father found him on the hill, still in the same position he was in. And when Greg came up to him to see what was wrong, he froze in place as he saw what had happened and why his son was like that. He saw the shards of the Crystal Gems and the shards of Spinel laying on the ground, then seeing Spinel's shards closest to Steven, making Greg piece together what had happened.

Greg then placed a hand on his shoulder, which caused Steven to stop for a moment as he looked up at his father, his eyes red and cheeks stained with tears. Greg then opened his mouth to only say one thing. "What happened?"

But Steven did not reply with an answer, only with more crying and sobbing as he broke down again, but this time in Greg's arms as he wrapped his arms around his crying son. He knew that he was very close with the gems, and now that they're gone, everything had changed.

Greg took Steven back to his house, not before collecting the shards of the gems and the split gem of Spinel and putting them in his pocket. He put Steven in his bed and placed the shards of the Crystal Gems in some jars he found in the kitchen but for Spinel's two pieces, he placed them on the counter without a jar as he could only find four jars. He then left the house to go tell Lapis, Peridot and Bismuth what had just happened.

Once he got to Little Homeworld and told them, they were absolutely shocked. Bismuth nearly broke down at the loss of her friends while Lapis and Peridot held sad expressions that they were gone. Their friends, gone with a flash. Greg also talked about the unknown gem's shards and how he thinks Steven might've shattered her himself. This caused all three of the gems to gasp in absolute sadness and horror that the boy who helped them, whom were close to them, had shattered a gem. Lapis and Peridot felt absolutely horrified that Steven had shattered a gem, something that they all knew Steven would never do due to how much he detested the act and because of how sweet and nice he was to everyone. Bismuth also felt the same way, but even worse as once before, Bismuth tried to kill Steven in the past but now, she felt so bad that Steven had now done something that she now would never do.

Greg then asked the three what would they do, leading for Bismuth to tell him that her, Lapis and Peridot will now take care of him as a year ago, Garnet came to them and told them that should anything happen to them, they should take care of Steven and take their roles as his caretakers and guardians of the Earth should Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl perish. Greg fully understood that and told the three of them that they'll do a good job of helping Steven and taking care of him, just like how they did.

Eventually, he left Little Homeworld and called up Connie's mother, telling her what had happened. She was completely shocked to hear what had happened and would tell Connie about what had happened and tell her that they will send Lion to come get her and bring her home, to which she agreed to. Connie too, was absolutely saddened to hear the news of the main three Crystal Gems' demise and how he shattered a gem.

That night, a thunderstorm passed through Beach City as Connie arrived home on Lion with her duffel bag of her belongings, but still wearing the spacesuit she was wearing while at space camp. Connie frowned as she made her way towards Steven's house, hoping that she could do something to comfort him.

And when she went inside, she could hear Steven still crying upstairs in his room. Leading for her to head upstairs and see him there, his hair a mess and his pink jacket thrown to the side while his covers were all messed up too. Connie then sat down next to him on his bed and wrapped an arm around him. Steven paused for a moment to see who it was, only for him to move closer to her and continue crying.

Connie hugged her best friend as he cried into her shoulder, his voice sounding very raspy. After all, he had been crying for most of the day anyway so it was to be expected.

As she kept on hugging him, the only noises that came from his was his 'no's', his heaving from taking in breaths after his sobs, cry screaming and other crying noises. The rain kept on falling outside the house, with the occasional thunder claps and lightning strikes lighting up the sky. She knew that she, Greg, Lapis, Peridot and Bismuth would have a lot to do in order for Steven to get back to the happy boy they all knew and loved. It was going to take a long while, but they wouldn't stop at anything until they got him back.

But for now, she continued to embrace her best friend and listen to those heartbreaking sobs and screams that he made all until he got it all out.


	2. Aftermath

**ONE YEAR LATER**

A year later, and the atmosphere was almost unchanged. It was another day in life, but today, the now 17-year-old Steven Universe was at Homeworld in his mother's old room, his back faced away from the main door that anyone could come through. He was crawled up in a fetal position on the bed that the Pebbles had made for him, but he made no noise whatsoever.

His mind was only filled with images of what happened that unfortunate day when Spinel came down to Earth and killed his main family. He remembers that evil laugh and smile she had as she shattered Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. He remembers that rage he was filled with after she did the deed. He remembers all the tears he cried out a few hours after it had happened.

As time went on after the whole debacle, Lapis, Peridot and Bismuth moved into the Temple from Little Homeworld and stepped into their former friends' places. They were now the main guardians of Earth and were the new caretakers of Steven. At first, it was hard. He would barely speak at all and his eyes looked very tired and red. He'd only come out of his room for something to drink, eat, or just to go to the bathroom. The three were all worried for him. The boy who was always happy and energetic and loved to spend time with them, wasn't that boy anymore ever since that day.

Lapis tried to get through to him by asking him if he wanted to play with her on the beach or they could go on another flight together like they used to do a few years ago. But Steven just looked at her and sighed before crawling back to his room. This was what started her and the others' worries about Steven. He just wasn't himself after the whole incident.

And so the others tried too, with Peridot offering to do a CPH marathon with him but Steven just said he was too tired to do such a thing. Bismuth then tried to offer him a training session with her, but again, like with Peridot and Lapis, didn't do it. This worried the three of them at an immense level.

But let's get back to now.

After minutes of him being inside the room, he heard a chime sound from inside, meaning someone had come to see him. The door opened to reveal Pink Pearl, who was looking much better than before a few years ago. She still had her cracked eye, but by now she had learned to live with it. She saw Steven, and her expression turned to a concerned one as she saw what position he was in on his resting spot in the room. She walked up to him but didn't go all the way to him and stood a fair distance from his bed.

"Steven?" She asked. "Your caretakers have come for you."

Steven didn't respond. He probably didn't hear her due to his thoughts deafening the world around him and he was too lost in them to even talk to anyone.

Pink Pearl then walked closer to Steven and tapped his shoulder, causing him to snap out of his thoughts and turn to face Pink Pearl, who sighed in relief that he wasn't ignoring her. "Steven, your friends have come to bring you back home. They sent me to come get you."

Steven took a breather, before eventually getting up from his resting spot and putting on his jacket. He still wore the light blue and yellow star shirt he usually wore, but he was considering changing it to a black and yellow star shirt. The jacket, he would keep as he always liked it ever since he got it. He then gathered together some stuff he brought along with him and placed it into his bag, which was a shoulder-strap, beige coloured bag he found in his father's storage. He switched it from his cheeseburger backpack since he was too old for it now and gave it over to Onion for his birthday.

Once he got everything and said goodbye to the Pebbles inside the room, he followed Pink Pearl as she lead him to the diamond palace. Steven took a look at his phone to see the time before reaching into his bag and taking out a pill bottle prescribed to him. It was a bottle of antidepressant pills he was given by his therapist Dr. Flynn. He took out a pill from the bottle and placed it into his mouth and then putting away the pills to grab a bottle of water he took with him in order to swallow the pill he took. He took a sip of water from his bottle and swallowed the pill and finally put away the water bottle before heading back to following Pink Pearl.

Eventually, after walking a fair distance to the palace, with Steven stopping a few times to greet some gems who wanted to thank him for all that he did, they reached the palace, where everyone was waiting. White, Blue, Yellow, their pearls, Lapis, Peridot and Bismuth were all there waiting for him. The moment he came in, the three remaining Crystal Gems walked towards him and embraced him, happy to see him again after he spent some time here on Homeworld.

"Thanks for watching over Steven, you three." Bismuth thanked the three diamonds. "He really needed to see you guys after that horrible night terror he had a few weeks ago."

"He's always welcome here." White responded. "As I said to him before he went back to Earth, there's always a room for him in the palace."

"So we can all adore him." Blue joked, trying to liven up the atmosphere. Yellow and White laughed at Blue's little joke before turning back to Steven.

"We'll see you soon, Steven. Take care now." White said.

"You're free to come or talk to us anytime." Yellow added.

"Thanks guys." Steven responded, his voice sounding less happier than usual. It had been a thing that had been happening ever since the incident. Before, he was full of energy and his voice always had a happy tone to it like he did at age 14, but since the incident with Spinel, it's never been the same since.

"C'mon Steven. Let's get you home." Peridot said, leading him and the others to the warp pad. They all waved goodbye to the diamonds as the warp pad activated and whisked them away back to Earth.

The warp stream went straight for the Temple, where the four of them landed on the warp pad inside the dome that was built on the side of the rebuilt Beach House, which Bismuth helped do by giving it an extra level for Steven's own room, a staircase to the dome and the dome itself, and also some interior changes with how the house was layered out and what decorations were up on the walls and shelves.

The four walked out of the dome and back into the house, where Steven went up to his room so he could do his own thing while the gems sat in the living area to talk to each other.

"These night terrors of his are getting out of hand. Why so frequently? They haven't been like this until now..." Bismuth sighed, a worried and confused expression on her face.

"Yeah.... He hasn't had one this bad since a few days after the incident..." Lapis replied, her expression also of a worried one. "If there was only a way for us to somehow make these terrors less frequent then maybe he'd be in a better mental state."

"I'm not sure there is any kind of method to stop that from happening, Lapis. Based on the things I've read, it's very difficult to manufacture a invention that can prevent night terrors or make them less frequent." Peridot said, fidgeting her fingers around.

"If only that gem didn't come down and kill them, then he wouldn't be like this..." Lapis exclaimed. "He'd still be the happy Steven we all know and love..."

"There was no way for us to know that she was coming." Bismuth responded to Lapis' comment. "Sure, Garnet did have a way, but we all knew that she stopped using her future vision more a while back. Sure, it's good to not know the future sometimes, but we all wish that we could stop certain futures from happening. But we can't always do that."

"Yeah." Lapis and Peridot said together, nodding their heads.

"Anyway, we should give Steven some space. He's probably not in the mood to talk with us at the moment so we should get to our classes in Little Homeschool." Bismuth suggested. "I'll tell his students that he's taking a sick day today."

The two nodded before following Bismuth over to the warp pad near the temple door, where instead of the usual colours of Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl, they were replaced with grey, green and blue colours to represent them as they managed to get their own temple rooms created after the others got shattered. The three then warped over to Little Homeworld to get to their classes.

Meanwhile, up in Steven's room, he was on his laptop, typing away at a journal application that his therapist told him to use to record his thoughts. He had headphones in, listening to some music that was on his playlist of songs he kept on the laptop. Currently, he was writing about the events that had occurred with him a few weeks ago and how he spent some time on Homeworld in order to get some help from the Diamonds and to stay with them for a bit to clear his head of the night terror he had one night that lead to him heading over to Homeworld.

His therapist, Dr. Flynn, was a nice guy. He met him after his father suggested that it'd be a good idea for him to get a therapist after the traumatic experience Steven faced so they could help him get his mental health back in good health. Overall, it worked for the most part as Dr. Flynn had lived in Beach City for a while and was used to the strange gem-related occurrences that happened over the past few years and even got along well with some of the gems in Little Homeworld, so Steven and Flynn got along well and he was a good listener to what Steven told Flynn about what he went through.

Just as Steven was finishing up on his journal, he heard his phone ring. He took off his headphones and pulled out his phone out of his pocket to see that Connie was calling him. Ever since the incident, Connie had been very supportive and caring of Steven and always checked up on him any chance she could get.

Steven hit the accept call button and Connie's face appeared on the screen. " _Hey Steven!"_

"Oh, hey Connie. What's up?" Steven responded.

 _"Since I suspected that you'd be back from Homeworld today, I thought we could hang out and talk? I mean, after that night terror you had a few weeks ago, I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it?"_ Connie suggested. _"If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, it's okay."_

"Oh no, it's okay. I can talk with you." Steven said. "Where should we meet up? Fish Stew Pizza at 12:30?"

 _"I'll meet you there."_ Connie replied. _"Anyway, I should get back to working on my prep work, so I'll see you soon. Take care, Steven!"_

Steven gave a small smile. "You too, Connie."

And with that, the video call ended. He then went back to finishing his journal entry on his laptop and wondering what else he could do after he was finished. He could work on the timetable for Little Homeschool, see if he could find a new thing to try out that he'd never done before, or just play video games to clear his mind off things. But he'd come to that once he was done.

Finally, Steven typed up his last sentence and hit the save button on the program he was using to write the entry. He closed his laptop and got up from the bed before stretching out his limbs after spending nearly half an hour on his bed lied on it. He went downstairs to get himself a drink from the fridge in the kitchen.

As he went to grab a can of apple juice from the fridge, he looked back at the stairs he walked down, only for him to see a familiar figure standing on one of the steps. At first, he didn't pay any mind to it, but when he did a double take to see if it was actually there, the figure was gone. Steven shook his head to rid his mind of the thought of seeing the random figure, as he just thought to himself that he was just seeing things and it wasn't real. He then opened his can of apple juice and drank it, whilst sitting at the table alone with his thoughts.


End file.
